Walking in a winter wonderland

The midwinter festivities are fast approaching. You can feel it in the chilly air and the excitement of children everywhere, and today, we were super-excited because there would be some very special visitors in town…

Our local shopping centre was playing host to some festive guests today, so I headed down there with my boys (although one was sleeping throughout proceedings) and met up with my youngest sister, who was there with her kids too. She had to dash off so I took her eldest, Goldilocks, with me, Tadpole and Button to have a little fun.

There was a giant snow globe in the market square, so Goldilocks and Tadpole got in and had a great time throwing the fake snow about and getting a photo or two taken. They enjoyed it so much they wanted to stay all day, but it was soon time to let someone else take a turn.

So we headed to the centre, where we immediately ran into a towering frost giant. I had to wonder whether Thor and Loki might be somewhere around, seeing as how we appeared to be under invasion from the Jotun, but he was without entourage and absolutely magnificent, and very kindly posed for photographs. Tadpole was a little intimidated by so tall a person, but Goldilocks couldn’t get enough of him. Our friendly frost giant then pointed us in the direction of the other festive folks and we trekked off to find the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolf, accompanied by none other than the jolly fat man in red himself, Santa Claus.

Snow globe fun for Goldilocks and TadpoleGoldilocks posed with our North Pole pals after Tadpole handed over the Xmas letters

Again, Tadpole was a little wary (I suppose it’s healthy to be a little apprehensive around strangers, so I can’t complain!), but Goldilocks was very happy to pose. Tadpole did, however, hand over the Xmas letters he signed for himself and Button, so he feels happy that his requests are now noted and he’s told Santa what a good boy he’s being.

Next we went to one of our favourite cafes for a spot of lunch before hitting the market and the Olde Sweet Shop for a treat before going home to play some more.